Problems with Ass Piss

Again, I was stricken with diarrhea, and by the looks of it (and smells), it was bacterial. The time before, I took Cipro, which was awful. So, this time I took a course of Ayurvedic herbs that I received from a local Doctor here in Rishikesh.

To take three times a day for five days, an anti-bacterial pill was given. It contained these herbs, I was told.
Chirayata: for bowel regulation
Kutaj: for gastric disorders
Bael: anti-diarrheal
Isabgol: bowel regulation

A second pill was given, to eat after breakfast and dinner, which was for liver and kidney health. I don't know what was in that, but it was herbal as well.

Also, I had picked up Diarex, an Ayurvedic herbal medicine by the Himalaya Herbal Company. The Doctor told me that I could take that as well, and there would be no complications with these medicines. I took two in the morning, and two in the evening.

Throughout the course, for a week, I ate mostly Kicheri, a slow boiled rice and lentil dish, and veg soup and toast. I avoided dairy and oily foods, basically anything else. For a while I was getting better, and saw good results in the bowl, but traveling makes it hard to maintain a controlled diet, and somedays the soup was oily, or the daal heavily spiced. So my bowel function fluctuated, and after eating some curd seemed to return to a runny state again, strangely. So, I took another week of pills, adding to the concoction, Bael, from the Himalaya Herbal Company. Unfortunately, again my bowel health flucuated and one day I decided to eat pizza, after two weeks of soup. Of course, this sent my guts into a kind of intestinal madness just as I expected; clearly I was not close to eating "regular" foods yet after two weeks.

So, not wanting to spend my whole time in India eating soup, I took a kind of anti-biotics that I picked up earlier in Kathmandu called Tinidazole. I took 2 grams a day, in the morning and evening, for 2 and a half days. I kept a light diet of tibetan soups and breads, and followed the course with Bifilac pro-biotics to replenish intestinal flora.

This course worked fine, and I experienced no side-effects as I had with Cipro. Unfortunately, I couldn't keep up with the herbs, but I did experience their real efficacy, however, the patience and controlled diet required were difficult to maintain. If I was at home, cooking for myself, I think I could be healed over a period of two to three weeks, but on the road, that's a long time, and the anti-biotics did the trick in a day or so. But a herbal cure can work; I experienced it working, but it takes time. That time is likely worth it for the gentleness of the cure.

More Health Problems! (Ciprofloxacin)

So, staying in Ghorka, I not only drank some bad water ("Is this water boiled," I asked. "No. It's purified. No problem!" I was told.), but also chipped a tooth on a bone shard in a momo full of secret buffalo meat. Surprise!

For the tooth, I went back to the DentInn, in Kathmandu (http://www.dent-inn.com/). They recommended removing an old filling and re-filling the whole thing for overall strength of the tooth. I thought this sounded reasonable, but was quite a procedure: anaesthetic injection, drilling, and filling. My mouth was full of tools for what I thought would be a simple solution, and the dental assistant was rather absent minded, looking away from time to time, allowing the vacuum suction to slip around my mouth and throat. It seems to have been a well done procedure, though the overall professionalism and careful practice was slightly lacking.

Then I went to a doctor (www.ciwec-clinic.com -- near the English and Indian Embassies) to deal with a diarrhea problem--turned out to be bacteria not cholera or dysentery, thank goodness. Though if I thought the poo problem was bad, the cure was much worse. I was offered Ciprofloxacin, an anti-biotic, to take twice daily for three days. At first, it was not bad, but by the third day I was experiencing a gamut of side-effects:
I've had a rash over large parts of my body, dizziness, *severe headache, sleeplessness, frequent urination, dehydration, muscle aches all over, some stomach ache, eye pain, confusion, fever and lethargy.
Last night all of these ganged up on me and I had a really long night, and many of these effects are persisting into the day, though I have finished the meds this morning. I hope to be well again tomorrow...
If you plan to take this medication, think carefully and make sure you have somewhere comfortable where you can rest, because if my experience is an indication, you will become very uncomfortable.
Here are some websites to read:
http://www.askapatient.com/viewrating.asp?drug=19537&name=CIPRO&page=1
http://www.westonaprice.org/healthissues/cipro.html

Kathmandu is such an innapropriate place to recover from illness. Car horns, touts, pollution, a garbage crisis in the streets, dogs, noise, heat... Maybe sometime I'll come here feeling really well and have a great time. Though I was in Bhodnath yesterday; that seems like a place to stay for a few days. Pictures soon.

Tooth Ache!

Had a toothache in Kathmandu. This is not a good place for a toothache. Car honking is mandatory and dogs bark all the time, and don't get me started about the touts: "You going trekking? restaurant? guesthouse? You need a taxi? jewelry? hand crafts? [whispered] marijuana? hasish? [normal voice] train ticket? bus ride? Where you going? What do you want?" peace and quiet. So I spent a week on anti-biotics which killed the infection or whatever, and I didn't after all, need dental surgery as was hinted at as a possibility if all-else-fails, by my dentist. And then I went straight to the mountains.
For anyone in need, here are the dentists I went to in Kathmandu:
http://www.dent-inn.com/
http://smilenepal.com/